Graphics cards! 9600, 8800, 6600 oh my!

[cosmocrazy]

Alright, so recently I've been seeing all these new cards around. These include cards from the 8 and 9 series. My question is: are the 9 series cards always better than the 8? For example: is the 9600 shown here better than the 8800 GTS?

Whats the difference between an 8800 GT and an 8800 GTS?
Will they run on a retail (HP) box 250-watt power supply at normal clock speeds? I want to know everything I can about graphics cards.

[brutetal]

Nope, the card takes about 200 watts alone.

GTS is the updated and tweaked version, of the GT.
There's minor to no difference at all but the price tag.

[Hazirak]

Alright, so recently I've been seeing all these new cards around. These include cards from the 8 and 9 series. My question is: are the 9 series cards always better than the 8? For example: is the 9600 shown here better than the 8800 GTS?

The 9600's performance is supposed to be comparable to the 8800 for a smaller price tag. In fact, the 9600 even boasts a slightly higher GPU clock speed over the 8800GT. The GTS still comes out just barely higher, though.

Whats the difference between an 8800 GT and an 8800 GTS?

The GTS has slightly higher GPU and memory clock speeds.

Will they run on a retail (HP) box 250-watt power supply at normal clock speeds? I want to know everything I can about graphics cards.

Yeah, you'll run the card, but what about the rest of your system? ;)

Minimum would be a 400-watt power supply that can provide at least 26 amps over one or all of its +12-volt rails. Keep in mind this is a bare minimum, though - to be safe, you'll probably want to shoot for a 500- or 600-watt PSU, depending on what other hardware you're running.

[componentwarehouse]

If you want to work out how much power you need, you can go to:

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

Enter your system spec, the card you want, and it will give you an estimate as to how many watts you need. Its only an estimate though, Id go about 150W higher than its suggested value. And as stated above, make sure you have as many amps as possible on the 12V rail.

Alex

[Spartan Erik]

The 8-series cards will be receiving physics support through CUDA, but nVidia hasn't mentioned if they'll bring this functionality to the 9-series.

If you have a single 8-series card, you can dedicate a certain amount of the GPU to processing physics vs graphics. If you have two cards, you can dedicate amounts on both, or use one entirely for physics and the other for graphics

[cosmocrazy]

Wow, I didn't expect so many replies. Thanks!

So I guess a 9 series isnt always better than 8?

What about mobile graphics? Is the 8600M GT featured in say..a Macbook Pro comparable to a 8600 desktop card? I ask because my next big purchase is going to be a laptop, and I'd like to know more about the part that makes it so expensive before slap down the $1000+ dollars.

[Smith6612]

Might as well go for the 8 series cards for now, if anything. If you have a lot of cash, simply go for the 8800 Ultra. If not, go with the 8800 GTX or the GT.

[nexhunter]

If you got the money go for a new gtx 280 series card or if you need something lil bit cheaper wait until the gtx 260 series cards come out, but the 9800gtx is better than an 8 series and is really close to the 9800gtx2 but the 9600 is better than the 8800gso but is close but still somewhat weaker than an 8800gt which the 8800gts is a lil bit better than the 8800gt, and the new 9600gso is basically a revamped 8800gso built on the same core as the 9600gt but with less memory,

and mobile graphics can't be compared to desktop cards due to the decrease clock speeds of the cards due to the need of getting rid of produced heat, and for the power supply make sure you get the minimum wattage as when i got my new 9600gt for my birthday last month my 300watt power supply ran fine for a 6600gt but the 9600gt just by plugging in the power cable killed the psu

[Spartan Erik]

If you plan on gaming, I highly recommend against mobile graphics cards.. I'm not sure about their clock speeds but I would presume they are lower than those of dedicated cards. Additionally, they share your existing RAM

[componentwarehouse]

If you plan on gaming, I highly recommend against mobile graphics cards.. I'm not sure about their clock speeds but I would presume they are lower than those of dedicated cards. Additionally, they share your existing RAM

Not all share the RAM, you can get some dedicated graphics cards for laptops (although they make the laptop considerable more expensive). Although I would also guess that the clock speeds are lower to keep the temps down to a managable level.

Alex